“The limits of my language mean the limits of my world,” observed philosopher Ludwig Wittgenstein in 1922. We might ask, accordingly, how does language shape reality, arbitrating human experience of ...

Language shapes how we see the world. We use it to make sense of our reality. We use it to label people and things around us. Label something beautiful, and you acknowledge its uniqueness, elevate its ...

This article was published in Scientific American’s former blog network and reflects the views of the author, not necessarily those of Scientific American When Emperor Akihito stepped down from the ...

In the aftermath of the recent U.S. military strikes on Iran, one truth stands out above all: language is not just a means of communication—it is the lens through which we interpret, react to, and ...